It's downright lush.
Just in time for the 4th of July weekend, my onions from last year (as Rene Redzepi would call them, "vintage vegetables") have produced greens that are up to my chin, with big balls that look like fireworks at the top. Most have fallen over from their own weight, but a few remain upright and they're pretty impressive. I texted this photo to a friend and said that this is my onion, and if dinosaurs show up in the yard tomorrow, it won't surprise me.
Corn is looking good, some of it about waist-high. It's ahead of the game as the rest is about knee-high.
I've already had three zucchinis. Some are suffering from too much water, but I can't stop the rain so I'm just going to lose some.
The tomatoes are doing well, and I sprayed them last week with copper, so hopefully it will fend off the fungus for a while. Though, with all the rain we've gotten, if the copper stuck at all, it's probably time to redo it already. There are a handful of green tomatoes hanging about and I'm looking so forward to my farm eggs scrambled with tomatoes and onions from my garden, that my mouth waters just at the thought.
Garlic scapes are my favorite thing out of the garden, so having such a successful crop of garlic growing makes me one happy girl. I made pesto out of a batch, then made pesto chicken, and with leftover pesto chicken I made a homemade pizza with no pizza sauce, but subbed in garlic scape butter, and topped it with cheese and pesto chicken. Holy cow! Magic!
The lettuce looks good. It's keeping me well-stocked with a daily salad and a grocery bag of lettuce leafs go to work with me daily. All are pleased with the leafy goodness. Also, the sunflowers are coming in about 18-24 inches tall in the background.
The corn I started from seed (not starts) is way behind the rest, but it's looking good mixed with the carrots and green beans (with an occasional vintage onion).
And I ate all these green beans last night in a green bean casserole with onions and wild rice. Tasty!
The butterfly garden is starting to bloom. Marsh milkweed is a lovely pink-lavender color.
Coneflowers look just about right. Hopefully they'll get fuller and fuller each successive year and the sparseness of this year is just getting established.
I cannot remember these guys, but I got them because they're yellow.
And the parsley looks like I need to start eating more of it.
For giggles, I'll share what has happened to my $1 hummingbird feeder.
That is almost an inch of carpenter ant corpses floating in there. They're attracted to the sugar water, crawl into the nectar flower, drown, and float to the top. It's turned into a very effective way to get rid of carpenter ants. My neighbor said not to take it down, it's doing double-duty because the hummingbirds will still drink from it, and it's getting rid of the ants. I'm on board with all of that.
Speaking of my neighbor, I'm a very lucky girl. The family who bought the house next to mine, in case I haven't mentioned this, is a landscaping family. The dad works for a landscape company with his brother, who also lives there. His brother's wife's family own a nursery and give them lots of flowers. We talk plants all the time, and Juan, the homeowner, cuts my lawn. No, he doesn't just cut it, he pampers it. He weeded and fertilized the whole front and side yard, and it's a lush carpet that looks professional.
And lovely though the rocks are around the trees, I'm informed that I did it wrong. As well as the butterfly garden. And other things. But when it gets less busy at his work and he's home earlier, he will fix it for me. So I bake for him and his family every week. They're going to put on a lot of weight if he keeps working on my yard.
My favorite new addition is this Strawberry Sundae pink hydrangea. It's starting to bloom and I cannot wait for the pink to show up!
I recently had a visitor, too!
He said, "Hi, human. I'm just sitting here chillin', but I would be really thrilled if you picked me way up there by your big pink face and talked like a baby to me." So I did.
By the time I was done ogling him, the sun had hit the bricks and I didn't know where else to put him, so I set him in my zucchinis, where it's shady. I bet he loved that.
Those are the adventures so far. It's good to go out into my garden once a day and pick what I'm having for dinner. It's kind of amazing and the thrill never wears off.
